With Yoriichi signaling the start of the event, several people situated in the far corners of the field prepare to put up a barrier. "Hey geezers. Are you going to participate? It's going to get pretty dangerous down here." Yo asks with a smirk.
"What do you intend to do?" Hirzuen questions. If the demonstrations they had in mind proved to be too excessive, it wouldn't be right to leave a few young jonin to face it alone. These zodiacs are rumored to be kage level. If they think they can throw that word around casually, he may have to demonstrate an actual kage's skill.
"A few fights, a hunting game, stuff like that." Yo answers.
"We capture hollows alive sometimes for study and training purposes," Kojiro explains more thoroughly. "Today, we'll be releasing them here for all to see and slaying them. We have been working on various techniques that are very effective against the beasts."
"You've been working on anti-hollow techniques too, right? Surely you guys weren't sitting on your thumbs this whole time, riiiiight?" Yo asks with a mocking tone.
"Watch your tone boy," snaps Danzo. "Of course, we have been preparing the village to combat the hollows. Just wait and see what we have come up with."
"Just go on ahead to the stands, we know you're not going to help. You're all feeble and stuff." Yo shoos him away dismissively, a few basic wind style jutsu didn't excite him. What Yo is interested in seeing is how creative 'the professor' has gotten in the last five years.
Danzo was about to pop a blood vessel, "Do not look down on me brat! Even at this old age I'm still more than spry enough to deal with a few hollows. Letting his anger get the better of him Danzo decides to join in.
Seeing he was about to make a rash decision Homura tries to stop him. "Danzo don't let-"
"Save it Homura, these brats seem to be under the impression that a few new techniques have set them apart from the rest of the world. Someone should bring them back to earth." Danzo says now having fully convinced himself to participate.
"Bring the sun to earth? Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, you'd all burn." Yo warns bluntly. Not wasting anymore time Yo motions for his subordinates in the corners of the arena to raise a barrier.
Now with the field fully covered one of the Shinsengumi officers performs several hand signs and smacks the ground then POOF! A massive cage containing at least a couple dozen of the odd looking beasts appears in the field. The enraged hollows smash themselves into the bars trying to escape.
The crowd gave mixed reactions from wonder to disgust, there were even some confused because they were unable to get a good look. As the audience murmurs their reactions to one another, Yo jumps on top of the cage and starts the show.
"I ASSUME MOST OF YOU WERE EXPECTING THE GIANT GILLIAN LIKE THE ONES FIVE YEARS AGO, BUT HOLLOWS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES WITH A VARIETY OF ABILITIES! FOR OUR FIRST DEMONSTRATION WE WILL BE SHOWING THE POTENCY OF OUR HOLLOW SLAYING TECHNIQUES VERSUS NINJUTSU!" He motions to the group of ninja waiting to fight too. "A SMALL HOLLOW SLAYING COMPETITION IF YOU WILL!" As he is speaking the zodiacs follow Kojiro and Shisui to a watching area set up on the sidelines of the arena to watch inside the barrier. Only a handful of swordsmen stood awaiting orders.
"Are none of your officers going to help?" The third hokage asks Kojiro with some concern. They were just going to let the grunts fight?
"Since it is just these weak hollows, they will be more than enough," Kojiro answers confidently. "Will your jonin be alright?"
"Our efforts to develop hollow slaying techniques were fruitful as well, my ninja have nothing to worry about." Hiruzen answers before taking a drag of his pipe and walking ahead of him.
Seeing everyone who wasn't fighting out of the way, Yo continues to the start of the first event. "NOW LET'S BEGIN!!!" With a light stomp of his foot the gates swing open and the hollows spill out, they immediately set their sights on Yo.
"You were a fool to release us!"
"We'll tear you to pieces brat!"
"I'm going to devour his soul!"
An unbothered Yo doesn't even so much as flinch at all the bloodlust aimed at him. "Really?" He asks with an annoyed tone, bearing down with his spiritual pressure they were all immediately scared into submission. The arena goes quiet seeing he instantly tamed them. "Damn I didn't mean to break their spirits…now it won't be interesting." Yo says to himself, if the hollows are scared, they won't go all out. He could see he wasn't the only one who thought of it. He noticed disapproving glares in the crowd.
After a brief silence of thinking, Yo's face lit up with a sudden revelation. "Hey hollows! Listen up! You see those kids in black and those guys in the vests? If you manage to kill them all I will personally guarantee you get out of this village alive."
"Wait those guys over there?" One of the hollows asks pointing out the people participating in this first challenge. They looked waaaaaay weaker than Yo.
"Yup. If you guys can beat them all, you're home free." Yo affirms.
"How do we know we can trust you swordsman?" Another asks.
"I put it on my master," Yo answers seriously. "Besides I could just kill you all myself right now."
Seeing their options laid out before them, all of the hollows bloodlust came back with double the ferocity. "YEAAAAHHHH! LET'S KILL THOSE SMALL FRY!"
"What did he say to bring their spirits back like that?" Hiruzen asks.
"I can't say for sure, but probably something we would never agree to." Kojiro responds. "It's probably best we don't know."
"Alright now that that's been fixed. let's get ready to RUUUUUUUMMBLEEEEE! BEGIN!" With Yo's signal the hollows fan out and immediately go on the offensive, half attacking each group.
The Shinsengumi waited patiently as the hollows advance until Kojiro shouts out "THREE MAN RESONATION!"
"Lets go soul resonance!" Immediately, after his command the first row of swordsman release their spiritual pressure at equal ratio, and in an instant they synchronized completely. The three souls multiply in power as one massive soul. As the first two rush forward a low rumbling sound reverberates across the battlefield.
"Thunder breathing first form: Thunderclap and flash!" The third swordsman rushes passed his allies with a swift slash that cleaves the first hollows arms off as it tries to block the sword.
"What's with that speed?" The hollow is startled to see its arms go flying before the other two appear, one going high and the other low.
"Water breathing first form: Water surface slash!"
"Flame breathing first form: Unknowing fire!"
Two horizontal slashes one blazing hot and the other straight line of flowing water go through the hollow's neck and midsection, killing it instantly. Their onslaught doesn't stop there, the water breather goes to meet the next hollow. "Not so fast!" Another hollow helps pincer him attacking with their sharp claws.
"Flame breathing fourth form: Blooming flame undulation!" The flame breather steps forward swinging his sword in a circular motion to block both attacks with a wall of fire, then dropped low as the water breather rises up with a spinning motion.
"Sixth form: Whirlpool!" A giant whirlpool of water rises and slices the two off-balanced attackers to pieces.
"Be careful! These kids are strong!" A hollow shouts as his allies step back from the bladed whirlpool to regroup.
As the other hollows retreat the thunder breather makes his move. "Thunder breathing third form: thunder swarm!" Countless arcs of lightning scatter out around the battlefield assaulting the hollows. They scatter trying to block and avoid all of the devastating attacks while fire and water rage through the chaos. Hollow body parts are sent flying every which way.
As the water breather strikes with his fluid dance, his motions get faster and stronger with each swing, "water breathing tenth form: constant flux." Deep wounds appear on the hollows and limbs are sent flying. When he leaps up to decapitate the largest one it manages to dodge his attack with surprising speed. Countering with a massive spirit energy charged punch the water breather doesn't even brace himself for impact.
Suddenly a blazing tiger bites down on the big hollows arm and completely incinerates it. "Fifth form: Flame tiger!" The fire breather roars.
"Graaaaaaah!" The hollow staggers back holding it's burnt knub of an arm as the flame breather dashes towards it. "I'll kill you first!" The hollow composes itself to meet the flame breather head on with all it's might when-
"Thunderclap and flash!" One of it's legs is severed when a streak of lightning flies by with a quickdraw.
"Damn you!" It says falling forward as the flame breather dashes in with his sword held up high.
"Fifth form: blazing universe!" Fwoosh! A flaming downward slash cleaves the hollow in two.
"I-incredible…the three of them fight with perfect coordination and none of them have so much as signaled to one another. Their ferocious attacks leave the hollows no quarter…" Homura speculates watching them fight.
"Indeed, they don't leave any openings, the hollows can't even catch their breath against them. The Shinsengumi are far more skilled than we gave them credit for." Koharu agrees.
Listening to the old timers praise even his lowest of swordsmen brought a smirk to Kojiro's face.
"Bah! This is only the beginning, I should hope they aren't pressured here." Danzo still hasn't given his seal of approval. "It's clear to see these hollows are fairly weak."
"I must say that their skills are impressive. To be able to overwhelm the hollows who outnumber them by so many is impressive." Hiruzen remarks. "However, it is early on still and our own ninja have also don't seem hard pressed with their opponents either."
On the other side of the arena the jonin couldn't let a group of kids show them up, so they only had two ninja participate in the first round. A couple of talented young men who had taken to anti-hollow techniques rather easily and they are two faces Yo knows all too well.
Over on the ninja's side, another loud sound signals a powerful attack. The sound of chirping birds, a lot of them. "Lightning blade!" Kakashi shouts advancing forward. The white-haired ninja rushed a hollow faster than it could react. Carrying a kunai coated in lightning chakra he thrust it straight through a hollow's mask killing it immediately. As it faded to dust he summersaulted away throwing tagged kunai at hollows on either side of him. Each one landed square in one of their faces and then BOOOOM! Explosions of condensed spirit energy blow their heads clean off.
'So that's the copy ninja, Kakashi Hatake…It's a shame he no longer carries a sword, I heard he was quite skilled.' Kojiro watches one of the leaf village's premiere talents in action.
"Spirit energy sealed into explosive tags isn't bad…for normies I guess…" Yo comments from atop the cage. He had to admit he was a little disappointed Kakashi didn't do something cooler. They had to have raised the bar a bit more than that. "I expect better from you Kakashi! Do something flashy!" He shouts wishing he had peanuts to throw.
'Do something flashy? What is this a circus?' Kakashi thinks to himself as he watches his enemies carefully.
"Hahaha don't let him get to you Kakashi," Gai laughs patting his back. "I hear that Yo likes to talk a lot of trash."
"I'm not and I know…" Kakashi just gets ready, ignoring them both. "We're going with that."
"Already? Isn't that a bit much?"
"He wants flashy…" Kakashi sighs. "Just don't mess up. Alright?"
"I was going to say the same to you!" Gai notices the change in his partner's demeanor and gets serious too. "First gate: gate of opening!" Releasing a surge of chakra Gai powers up some before drawing a weapon of his own.
"Oh nunchucks! What are you guys gonna do?" Yo asks himself interested in what they'd do. Watching Gai do a few warm-up swings, he kicks up a dust storm that obscures everyone's vision of the two ninja.
"I can't see dangit! Why'd he make that huge dust cloud? Isn't this a demonstration!?" Naruto yells.
"Pay attention Naruto," Benimaru advises watching closely with his sharingan active. "Their attack has already begun."
When the cloud of dust blows away both Gai and Kakashi are gone. "Huh where'd they go?" The spectator and hollow alike scanned the area for them when. The ground cracked under one of their feet and Kakashi burst out from underneath using his headhunter jutsu.
"There you ar-" Whatever attack the hollow was preparing didn't matter because Gai's nunchaku smashed into it's head from above. It released a giant surge of natural energy that blasted it straight onto Kakashi who turned out to be a lightning clone. Poof! When it was destroyed the hollow was electrified and unable to defend against the brutal barrage the green beast followed up with. The devastating combo ended in the hollow being reduced to practically nothing.
The others used their comrade's death as an opening to attack Gai, not realizing that the real Kakashi had yet to resurface. Even still Gai alone was a force to be reckoned with. He rushed into them landing explosive bone cracking blows as they try to attack only to be countered with another heavy blow from impossible angles.
Emerging from the ground a short distance away Kakashi went entirely unnoticed. "Good work, you've got them all bunched up for me," he says as he weaves a series of hand signs "soul lightning style: rising storm!" All of the natural energy gathered around the area starts to cackle being charged with electricity.
"Got you!" A hollow finally manages to grab Gai only to realize it's holding a log. "Huh?" As soon as Gai was clear the entire area erupted into a high voltage column that rose to the sky incinerating them all almost instantly. The arena fell silent for a moment as everyone looked on in awe.
As jaws remained dropped all over the arena the silence is broken by Yoriichi clapping. "Kinda overkill, but that was BADASS!" The arena came to life with applause, roaring praise for the young warriors.
"Hahahahaha! Thank you!" Gai waves loving the praise.
"All this just for their amusement…what a waste of chakra" Kakashi mutters with an annoyed glare. Even still, looking at the third hokage and elders, he saw that they were thoroughly impressed. In this little pissing contest, they did their part well.
"Natural energy infused weaponry and spiritual energy based ninjutsu? That is very impressive indeed." Kojiro gave the elders an approving nod. Their techniques weren't bad at all.
"Like I said, this was obviously too easy. If you truly want to prove something increase the difficulty." Danzo grumbles, not changing his stance even for his own ninja. This much should be expected. "What's next?"